Elysium Picture

...where the air was never extreme, which for rain had a little silver dew, which of itself and without labour, bore all pleasant fruits to their happy dwellers, till it seemed to him that these could be no other than the Fortunate Islands, the Elysian Fields. - Plutarch, Life of Sertorius, ch. viii.

Was going to title this one "Yellowesplosion", but "Elysium" sounds slightly more dignified. But anyway, if you've never encountered the name before, it's from ancient Greek mythology. The Elysium Fields were the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and the virtuous. And trust me, you'd much rather end up there than in Tartarus.

I came up with this idea when I was thinking about the afterlife. Personally, my idea of a five star afterlife would be a warm place where you feel loved, all your worries are taken away from you, and you know, stuff like that. But physically, it would look like a combination of the Elysium Fields and the fields of Aaru, the heavenly paradise where Osiris rules. Aaru is a series of islands covered in reed fields. Naturally, to the Egyptians it resembled the Nile river delta. Anyone trying to reach Aaru had to go through roughly 20 gates. And of course, each gate was guarded by evil demons armed with knives, because you got to keep the riff-raff out, after all. So yeah, whether your destination is Aaru, Valhalla, or Tanelorn, getting into paradise is a lot of work.